1/ Ok so I guess it's time for a thread on the whole "Biden doesn't care about space" thing
2/ Lots of griping and commentary from the #space community about the lack of focus/interest on space from the Biden Admin so far. Let's unpack where that comes from and why
3/ Part of it comes from wonks like me who are concerned that there are not any space policy appointments at and wish to see more movement on space issues
4/ Part of it comes from Republicans, who are like to use space policy as part of the "proof" that their party is superior and Trump, who sees Space Force as one of his biggest accomplishments military.com/daily-news/202…
5/ Part of it comes from us in the community feeling a bit miffed that we're no longer getting as much attention from big name politicians and splashy WH events as we once were
6/ And I think there's also a legitimate concern that some of the progress made in the last several years might halt or even backslide. But let's put all of this in perspective
6/ First on the timing, Obama nominated a NASA Admin ~124 days after election (confirmed at 178 days). Trump took ~217 days (and 455 for confirmation). Biden is ~50 days in. So just chillax for a bit on that.
7/ Second, remember that we didn't have a National Space Council for Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush W, or Obama and they managed to make many consequential space policy decisions: aerospace.org/sites/default/…
8/ Yes, I think it would be better to have a NSpC for improve interagency coordination and public visibility, as we argue in the @SWFoundation Issue Brief for the Biden Admin: swfound.org/media/207084/s… 
9/ But that high political visibility comes at a cost of increased chance of partisan pushback, as we're seeing across a range of Trump Admin space policy decisions (even if they were sound on the merits)
10/ And while the Trump Admin did issue MORE policy decisions than any other admin, the scholar in me will point out that we have no empirical evidence that they were BETTER decisions or will be more consequential than other decisions
11/ The 1996 Clinton GPS policy was likely the single most consequential #spacepolicy decision ever, and it barely made a ripple in the news when it came out. Most space people today probably have no idea what was in it: aerospace.org/sites/default/…
12/ So to wrap up, I know we in the space world like having our egos stroked and think our stuff is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD but let's just step back and take a breath. Keep doing your good work and give the new team a chance /fin
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